Arsenic and Cardiovascular Disease: New Evidence From the United States

Abstract

Editorials19 November 2013Arsenic and Cardiovascular Disease: New Evidence From the United StatesYu Chen, PhD and Margaret R. Karagas, PhDYu Chen, PhDFrom New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York; and Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Lebanon, New Hampshire.Search for more papers by this author and Margaret R. Karagas, PhDFrom New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York; and Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Lebanon, New Hampshire.Search for more papers by this authorAuthor, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-159-10-201311190-00720 SectionsAboutFull TextPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail Mounting evidence suggests that exposure to chemicals and other environmental substances, such as ambient urban air particles, cadmium, lead, and inorganic arsenic, could have a profound effect on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. Inorganic arsenic, a known carcinogen, occurs naturally in groundwater, exposing millions of people in the United States and worldwide. Epidemiologic studies in villages of southwestern Taiwan with high levels of arsenic in groundwater (median, 780 µg/L) provided early evidence of a dose–response relationship of water arsenic concentrations at less than 300 µg/L, 300 to 590 µg/L, and greater than 590 µg/L with CVD mortality (1). Arsenic exposure has ...